Michael O'Neill targets 'consistency of selection' for Northern Ireland's Nations League campaign

In 16 games to date, Northern Ireland still have only one victory in the competition - a 2-1 come-from-behind triumph over Kosovo in September 2022 in which Josh Magennis scored a stoppage-time winner. Nevertheless, that campaign proved to be the end for Ian Baraclough's reign.

But as Michael O'Neill's men prepare for a second go in League C - having been drawn against Belarus, Bulgaria and Luxembourg - they are looking at the next six games as winnable fixtures that can continue the recent upswing in results that began with last year's Euro 2024 qualifying victory over Denmark.

"The aim is to finish as high as we can and we certainly feel the group is capable of doing that, but what we need is that good consistency of selection which we certainly didn't have for the Euro 2024 qualifiers," O'Neill said ahead of Thursday's clash with Luxembourg in Belfast. "Hopefully we don't suffer the same types of injuries that we did in that campaign, but your target when you're at this level is to try and get to the next level, League B, and to do that we'd have to win the group. Hopefully we can get a chance to reset and have a positive campaign."

With Jonny Evans retired, O’Neill’s options have already been hit with Jordan Thompson and Brodie Spencer ruled out through injury and Conor Hazard expected to join them. Jamal Lewis' status is uncertain as the left-back is finalising a move to Brazilian giants Sao Paulo and, though he is due to join up with the squad later in the week, the travel will have taken a toll.

The Nations League was created to remove the unpopular friendlies from the calendar and replace them with competitive fixtures, but O'Neill is still clear about where this competition ranks in his priorities versus the qualifiers, with his eyes on next year's World Cup campaign.

"This competition doesn't carry any weight in terms of qualification but it's a very important competition for us in terms of development of the squad," he said. "What I like about the current team and group of players is that they're at an age where they're a very athletic team, we have an athletic team, a team with speed. We don't have experience so we have to develop that, this will further give us the option to do that and we will see."

Since beating Denmark last year, Northern Ireland’s young players have drawn away to Romania and beaten Scotland, while also enjoying a win over Andorra after a tough night against Spain.

"They've had a nice little run of games," O'Neill said. "They saw that the top of international football looks like when we played in June in Spain, and those are games that you're not expected to win. But there are games that, if you are to mount a serious challenge for qualification, whether it be for 2026 or (the Euros) in 2028, you're going to be drawn with teams at this level so you've got to try and make sure you can beat teams at this level. That will be the benchmark for us. We just want to continue to develop as a group, give the young players more and more exposure and continue to obviously develop a system of play and a way of playing that hopefully the fans like and enjoy."